Not gay as in happy,
Not queer as in fuck you.
Queer as in kaleidoscopes
Full of broken glass,
As in swagger in every pocket,
As in mascara and muscle,
As in gender-bender paperclips
Picking the locks
On pixie sticks and particularities.

As in glitter on your boots,
As in teach me bowties
And I’ll teach you boyfriends
And we’ll take turns shadowboxing
The toxic masculine bare fisted / borne teeth.

Queer as in asexual fort building,
As in problematic
Is everything but the dogs,
As in made up words for
“God damn! You look good!,”
As in your skin fits,
Borrow mine if ya get cold.

As an invitation
To tell me your real name:
The one invisible inked on the back of your neck
That you’ve read lemon juiced and backwards
In the mirror all those years.

Blake Marcelle is the author of Punch Drunk’s forthcoming second release, AS FOR THE BODY: Annotations of an Owner’s Manual, out this February. For updates please follow Punch Drunk Press on Facebook.